Single-payer health care advocates arrested in protest

[toymachines]

Source: San Diego News Network

Three single-payer health care supporters were arrested Monday after protesting outside the Mission Valley office of Blue Shield of California.

The protest was a part of a nationwide campaign to dispute health care companies, who demonstrators claim have been raising premiums throughout the recession and have lobbied against the single-payer system.

“The enormous amounts of money you’ve seen health insurance corporations lavishing on members of Congress, on non-stop TV ads, and advertising is killing us,” said protest organizer Jerry Malamud, who was also arrested. “Where do they get the money they spend to rig debate about the health care system? By denying care to those who need it most - in California one out of every five treatments is denied by an insurance company, resulting in denial of treatments and deaths.”

But a spokesperson for Blue Shield of California says the company has spoken in support of universal health care. Additionally, he said the company has not taken a stand for or against the public option.


Read more: http://www.sdnn.com/sandiego/2009-11-02/politics-city-c...

[HughMoran]

1. Hey BCBS - your execs live here too

Are you invisible of invincible? I think not...

[idrahaje]

2. Sure.. they can arrest those protesters, but not tea baggers.

Do'h

[Lerkfish]

4. that's because teabaggers are hatriots, doncha know...

the media and the law LOVES them some hatriots, and if they can carry guns openly and threaten the president, all the better...




wait, no not really saracasm.

[fascisthunter]

12. exactly... it gets clearer and clearer everyday

that this government is much more right wing than it is moderate. If it were moderate, both tea baggers and these folks would NOT be arrested.

[Brigid]

14. I was wondering the same thing.

Does anybody know if any teabaggers got arrested this summer?

[LaPera]

3. We should all be protesting out in the streets every chance we get

The fucking republicans and insurance corporations don't give one fuck about us if we or our fellow brothers & sisters die painful, awful deaths, as many are, simply because we can't afford the only option available to us, the profit hungry insurance industry outrageous rates and ultimately rejected anyway because of illness....We must protest this morally injustice bullshit.

[Bluenorthwest]

7. Many of us have been since the 80's

But the majority community did not see fit to join in until years and years later, when their own started to die off early. Just saying. "We" should? You should. We have been. It is the centrists, the 'moderates' the 'faith community' and the rest of the stuck in the past conservatives that have shirked that responsibility. The groups that are hated on DU, gay people and what they call 'the left' have been doing that heavy lifting for decades. Because we have watched hundreds of our brothers and sisters die awful deaths as Insurance and Government pretended they were not even ill, the disease did not even exist to them. To us it is not theory, but history.

[fasttense]

5. Go bankrupt or die. What a scam. n/t

[joeycola]

6. ha ha. The idiot believes a speech is advocating for universal coverage. Plus

he equates what is going in DC now with universal coverage!!


......Ezra also said Blue Shield of California has spoken in support of universal health care since 2002.

“In fact, our CEO Bruce Bodaken gave a speech advocating for universal health care in 2002 - which is pretty much the same thing they’re kicking around in Washington D.C. right now,” he said. “We’ve backed universal coverage again and again and again. Our whole history has been around trying to forward universal health care.”

When asked if there was proof that health insurance companies, like Blue Shield of California, are working jointly with congressional leaders in fighting the single-payer proposal -protest spokesperson Hampton said some evidence could be found.

“But you can’t always prove what the mafia is doing either,” Hampton said.

According to the National Health Interview Survey, in 2007, there were 510,000 uninsured San Diegans in the county; six million in California and 45 million in the U.S.

Read more: http://www.sdnn.com/sandiego/2009-11-02/politics-city-c...

[No Elephants]

8. BCBS, or BS for short probably does favor universal health care.

If by universal health care, you mean federal mandates that require everyone to buy health insurance, with the taxpayer picking up the tab for those who are destitute. People with pre-existing conditions and serious illness are no exception--as long as their premiums can be hiked to the sky.

HR 676 was introduced in 2002 or 2003. It is now 2009. Six years, more or less, at 45,000 per year. How many must die before we really do get true universal health care?

(RIP Dave.)

[No Elephants]

9. Hey, DU Bot has gone neocon on us. Warning: Do NOT sign that petition.

[joeycola]

10. Sorry I did not make myself clear. I believe my

definition of universal would be Medicare for all--not Blue Shields rendition of 'universal"

[cactusfractal]

11. Last scene of Fight Club. Kaboom. Sounds better 'n' better. n/t

[cactusfractal]

13. Skinner! Why the FUCK are we seeing a "Hands Off My Health Care" ad....

On THIS VERY TOPIC?

Talk about playing both ends against the middle.

[Kermitt Gribble]

15. How dare they protest the mighty corporations!

BCBS provides an invaluable service to this nation by funding our elected officials and killing off thousands of sickly peasants.